When I heard Freaky Flow was coming to Calgary, I was skeptical to say the least. I feel mean saying this, but I really wasn’t sure Freaky Flow still had relevance in the drum and bass community. It had been years since I had heard anything he had done, and honestly the words “washed up” came to mind. Although this man is pretty much responsible for securing my love for drum and bass, I still was just sort of thinking thoughts of distaste. Well, I will be the first to admit I couldn’t have been more wrong in my blatant dismissal.
photo by Amanda Bezanson
To be fair to Freaky Flow, I have to talk him up a little bit after my previous statements of irrelevance. Let me just say that a lot of my friends got into drum and bass because of him. Freaky Flow released a monumental album in the late 90’s. This was back when everyone still bought CD’s. There was no such thing as iTunes, torrent sites, or any of that. I mean, we had Napster, but it was nothing like it is now. It was all scratched skippy CD’s and removable faceplates. Everyone had this album, and when you were rummaging around your friend’s crappy car for something to listen to it was impossible to ignore the black background with the word “Tits” emblazoned across the front cover in giant white letters. And it was a really good album too! I listened to that CD more than any other CD in my teen collection. Along with DJ Czech’s effort in the same Obscene Underground mix series -“Cock”, “Tits” was the catalyst that turned me into a full blown breaks and dnb girl. These albums were instrumental in developing my musical taste, and introduced me to some legendary talent such as EZ Rollers, Aphrodite, and Plump DJ’s.
Not to date myself here, but the times I’m describing were already a decade ago. I honestly thought that Freaky Flow had kind of dropped off the musical planet since then, as I hadn’t really heard of him putting stuff out or touring. A quick check on his Wikipedia page tells me that I was in fact wrong about that as well. His discography shows quite a few newer releases that for whatever reason, I just haven’t heard. And really, his show was great! Everyone was having fun. Of course not all the tracks were pleasing to my musical palette, but I was very happy with the overall track selection. When Freaky Flow dropped his first track of the set, I was kind of worried, because the intro was just bad. It was the kind of vocal drum and bass that personally turns me off. But then the bass dropped and things drastically improved. I also forgot that Freaky Flow is amazing at scratching. He definitely showcased a lot of that throughout the set as well. As long as my eyes didn’t deceive me I am going to wager he played all vinyl, which is a welcome sight in this digital era. There was a really good mixed crowd of younger people and old school junglists, and smiling faces all around.
So what did I learn? As usual, having a negative opinion really does nothing but hinder me. If I wouldn’t have given this show a chance, I wouldn’t have been reacquainted with my first love of drum and bass. I wouldn’t have learned of my misinformation. I wouldn’t have had so much fun! Freaky Flow has once again recruited me as a fan. I will actually watch for his new mixes. Perhaps for old times sake I will burn them onto CD and keep them on the floor of my car- to recreate that authentic teenage feeling. Thanks Audio Empire for the great show!
Freaky Flow is on Facebook / Twitter / Soundcloud / Beatport
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